Leothadius

ON ST. LEOTHADIUS, CONFESSOR AND BISHOP, AT AUCH,

PERHAPS IN THE YEAR DCCXVII.

HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.

Leothadius, bishop and confessor, at Auch. (S.)

BY J. V. H.

§ Sole. The scarcity of the monuments; the Saint's

headship of the monastery of Moissac; the beginnings of metropolitan dignity

in the Church of Auch: the time of the episcopate uncertain; various translations.

Although, says the most recent writer, the Rev. Monlezun Monlezun, Lives of the Saints, Bishops of Auch, p. 1, the Church of Auch venerates many pontiffs Among its patrons the Church of Auch venerates St. Leothadius, distinguished by the praise of holiness, yet it attends four with particular honour and veneration: St. Taurinus, under the 5th day of September Acta SS., vol. II of Sept., p. 630, St. Orientius, under the 1st day of May Ibid., vol. I of May, p. 60, St. Austindus under the 25th day of September Vol. VII of Sept., p. 152, and St. Leothadius, whose feast is celebrated on this 23rd day of October. Of the three former our predecessors have treated, as we note at the foot of the page. There remains St. Leothadius, of whose deeds antiquity was all too sparing, so that it has scarcely been granted us to snatch a few little remnants from the vast shipwreck; and even these very remnants are held entangled in controversies. Moreover, the name of St. Leothadius escapes most martyrologists. In the Auctaria of Usuard edited by Du Sollier under this day, the name of the holy bishop is recorded by the Anchin, Charlieu and Cluny copies in these words: On the same day (the 23rd of October), of Saint Leotadius, bishop and Confessor. To these the praised hagiographer of Auch Monlezun, p. 19 adds that the holy prelate, having ended his life in Burgundy, was brought back to Auch, though no certain time can be assigned to this translation. Castellanus also announces St. Leothadius as bishop of Auch, formerly abbot of Moissac. Though these things are sparse and meagre, yet they do no harm to the honour and cult of St. Leothadius, which has persisted from every age in the Church of Auch and is frequented by the faithful who invoke the Saint in sicknesses, especially epileptics Ibid., loc. cit..

[2] who is said to have sprung from the princes of Aquitaine; We now proceed to those things which tradition has either preserved or invented about St. Leothadius, and we weigh them on the historical balance. It is said in the first place that St. Leothadius was related to the family of the princes of Aquitaine, and specifically to Eudo, duke of Gascony; while others rather carry back his descent to Charles Martel, and so to the Carolingian stock. For which reason Canon Monlezun prefers to divide his kinship between the two sides, so that he was related at once to Eudo, and thus to the Merovingian stock, and to Charles Martel, and accordingly to the Carolingian stock Ibid., p. 17. But these opinions seem scarcely likely. In the first place, the kinship between the Merovingian and Carolingian families is very doubtful, at least in the seventh or eighth century, in which St. Leothadius flourished. Next, we have a sufficiently accurate genealogy of Eudo of Aquitaine from the diploma of foundation of the monastery of Alaón in Spain, which we shall give in large part in the Acts of St. Oda, Widow, on this very day. In this document, moreover, nothing occurs by which St. Leothadius could be connected with the princely family of Aquitaine. Consult, if you please, the genealogical table of Eudo's family in the Benedictine writers of the History of Occitania Hist. du Langued., vol. I, p. 689. For the rest, once the kinship of St. Leothadius with Eudo is posited, there is no doubt that the Saint would have had St. Hubert in his household, either as leader or as follower, since the latter certainly belonged to the princely house of Aquitaine. But which of them preceded the other we are not able to determine, since the age of the prelate of Auch has not hitherto been so certainly known that it could afford any firm argument.

[3] and to have headed the monastery of Moissac; It is also handed down that St. Leothadius, before he ascended the see of Auch, held the headship of the monastery of Moissac, situated in the diocese of Cahors. Le Cointe rejects the tradition at the year 691, § XXIV, saying that the abbot of Moissac is called Leocadius or Leochadius, and therefore must not be confused with St. Leothadius, bishop of Auch. But the objection is rather slight; for such alteration of names is too frequent in ancient documents for anything to be concluded from it. Next, it is with more confidence than truth that Le Cointe calls the abbot of Moissac Leocadius. For indeed in the Life of St. Desiderius, bishop of Cahors, edited by Philippe Labbe, the following is read New Library of Manuscripts, vol. I, p. 707: At that time no monk's way of life had entered the city of Cahors, nor the habit of Religion or of the cenobitic Rule: the sect of Columbanus was far away, the institutes of Blessed Benedict stood at a long distance. But in the time of Desiderius this sect entered Cahors, under his day this Religion began to grow; for the monastery of Marcilhac too was begun in his time by the praiseworthy men Ansebertus and Leuthadus. It will readily be granted that Leuthadus and Leothadus or Leothadius are one and the same name, and therefore that Le Cointe spoke less accurately. Philippe Labbe, in the Appendix to the earlier volumes of the Library, placed at the end of the second volume, says: In place of the monastery of Maciliacum, an interpolator, busy in his own cause and for the honour of his monastery, substituted Moissac in the worst faith, and added that, having been begun a little before at the royal expense, in his time it was duly completed by the praiseworthy men Ansbertus and Leochadius. The monastery of Marcilhac is certainly situated in the bishopric of Cahors; but it is very doubtful whether it existed at the time when St. Desiderius lived. Gallia Christiana holds it as a popular tradition that Marcilhac was founded either by Pepin, father of Charlemagne, or by Pepin, king of Aquitaine; and even if this tradition is admitted, the foundation of Marcilhac is nearly a hundred years later than St. Desiderius, as is shown below. Indeed, it admits that no mention of it is made earlier than the year 960 Vol. I, col. 177; and so the foundation of Marcilhac does not belong to the times of St. Desiderius of Cahors. Next, let the name of Moissac have been interpolated in bad faith: the tradition of the monastic headship held by St. Leothadius will suffer no great damage. For we have another instrument, produced by Mabillon Vol. I, Annals, p. 631, from which it is established that in the seventh year of Theodoric III, or the common year 677, Nizezius with his wife Ermentrude sold various estates to Leutadus, abbot of Moissac; and since, moreover, for Le Cointe the episcopate of St. Leothadius at Auch began in the year 691, the reckoning of time certainly fits very well, and there is nothing on this side to conflict with the Saint's headship at Moissac.

[4] an opinion which chronological considerations do not at all oppose: Yet I would not say that the matter is therefore settled. For against the headship of St. Leothadius at Moissac Le Cointe, loc. cit., brings a weightier argument, and the writers of Gallia Christiana Vol. I, col. 159 and 976 give it their vote. Namely, that Moissac was begun in the lifetime of St. Desiderius, as is clear from his biographer cited above; and Desiderius ended his life, according to Le Cointe, loc. cit., § XXIII, in the six hundred and forty-ninth year, according to Mabillon in the year 656 [Vet. Analecta, p. 521, Paris edition 1723. Compare De la Croix, Series of the Bishops of Cahors, p. 29], which difference of seven years will come up again to be examined at the 15th day of November, when the Acts of St. Desiderius will be elucidated. Whichever opinion one embraces, nothing can be found in either that would make absurd the opinion of those who hold that St. Leothadius ruled the ascetery of Moissac for some time before being raised to the episcopate of Auch. Le Cointe himself, at any rate, at the year 674, § CXI, determines that the Saint was made bishop in the year of Christ 691, held the see for 27 years, and so met his last day on the 10th before the Kalends of November 718. In which chronotaxis, between the time when he administered the monastery of Moissac and then the diocese of Auch, we have forty-two years; and this interval of time is not so great that the headship of Moissac and the pontificate of Auch cannot be attributed to one and the same Leothadius. For which reason we do not believe that we should depart from the common tradition, according to which it will have to be conceded that the Saint lived on to old age, for example that he died a nonagenarian: an age which nobody would call absurd and impossible. For the rest, the chronotaxis of our Saint is so vague and fluid that it cannot be tied to any definite epoch by a certain and firm indication; and whether we weigh the times of the predecessors or of the successors of St. Leothadius, nothing occurs in which we can stand on a sure footing. There is no reason, therefore, why Le Cointe should reprehend Ménard, who followed the received tradition, so overconfidently.

[5] but less firm is what is handed down But there is another matter for which Ménard is more justly and with greater truth beaten by Le Cointe at the year 691, § XXIV: because he said that the Saint was archbishop of Auch Martyrology of the Order of St. Benedict, p. 724, whereas in the eighth century the metropolitan right lay with the bishop of Eauze. And indeed there are not a few who consider that the metropolitan dignity was first conferred well on in the ninth century, relying on a letter of Pope John VIII of the year 879, which is inscribed: To Airardus, archbishop (of Auch), Involatus of Comminges, Wainardus of Couserans, Sarstonus of Bigorre, bishops Migne, Patrology, vol. CXXVI, col. 844, in which incestuous marriages are prohibited. And that this Airardus was the first archbishop of the Church of Auch is openly taught by Odo the Levite, writing to Garsias, archprelate, the first of this name, who occupied the see at the end of the tenth century Gall. Christ., vol. I, col. 978, since he says that this man stood forth as the seventh with the pontifical right of closing and unlocking the felicity of life Ibid., instruments, p. 159. And indeed, if there be struck out, as Gallia Christiana would have it Ibid., col. 978 n., Odilo or Seguinus, both of them uncertain, the prelate Garsias is seventh from Airardus. From which it follows that St. Leothadius ought rightly to be called bishop, and not archbishop, of Auch.

[6] by various men And here we could halt our step, were it not that our own John Stilting creates a difficulty for us in the Historical Sylloge on St. Taurinus of Auch at the 5th day of September Acta SS., vol. II of Sept., p. 633. It seems, namely, to that most sagacious man that Odo, who wrote barbarously and obscurely, does not indicate clearly enough the beginning of the archiepiscopal dignity attributed to the see of Auch. Which indeed I admit to this extent, that Odo the Levite could have explained his matter in clearer and more customary words. But this indeed is beyond all controversy, that Garsias was the seventh to have received some power of the keys; and since, however, this cannot be understood of episcopal jurisdiction, Garsias, namely, among the prelates of Auch occupying, according to Gallia

Christiana Vol. I, col. 978, the fifty-fourth place, I do not see what other jurisdiction than the metropolitan, from which Garsias is seventh, Odo could have indicated. Yet I agree with Stilting that St. Taurinus, who is much more ancient, was not the leader and, as it were, the first centurion. To this point there tends also another argument by which our opinion can be confirmed. It is, namely, well known that the civil metropolises of the Gallic provinces were at the same time also ecclesiastical ones, and remained so down to the beginning of this present century, in which the provinces and dioceses of Gaul were circumscribed by new limits by virtue of the Concordat of the year 1801. Thus, to set the matter before our eyes: the metropolis of the Province of Lugdunensis Prima was Lyon; of Lugdunensis Secunda, Rouen; of Lugdunensis Tertia, Tours; of Lugdunensis Quarta or Senonia, Sens; of Belgica Prima, Trier; of Belgica Secunda, Reims; of Germania Prima, Mainz; of Germania Secunda, Cologne; of Maxima Sequanorum, Besançon; of the Graian and Pennine Alps, Tarentaise; of Viennensis, Vienne; of Aquitanica Prima, Bourges; of Aquitanica Secunda, Bordeaux; of Narbonensis Prima, Narbonne; of Narbonensis Secunda, Aix; of the Maritime Alps, Embrun. This Notitia of the Gauls has been edited by, among others, Dom Bouquet Recueil des Historiens de France, vol. II, p. 1 and following and more accurately by M. Guérard Essai sur les divisions territoriales des Gaules, p. 12. And it is evident that all these civil metropolises were also ecclesiastical ones, and remained so; indeed, whereas in the cited Notitia the city of Arles is ranked under the metropolis of Vienne, there are variant readings, recorded by M. Guérard, in which is read: Province of the Arelatenses, metropolis the city of Arles Ibid., p. 25. On what occasion Arles was erected into a metropolis, and what dissensions arose with the metropolitan of Vienne, the writers of ecclesiastical history explain here and there. Consult, if you please, Le Cointe at the year 508, §§ LIV and following.

[7] about the metropolitan jurisdiction in the Church of Auch. We have deliberately omitted until now the province of Novempopulana, about which there is a special question. This is described in the cited Notitia in the following way Ibid., p. 28: The metropolis, the city of the Elusates (Eauze); the city of the Aquenses (Dax); the city of the Lactorates (Lectoure); the city of the Convenae (Comminges, St-Bertrand); the city of the Boates (according to some Bayonne, according to others Tête-de-Buch); the city of the Benarnenses (Lescar); the city of the Aturenses (Aire); the city of the Vasates, where is the fort of Bigorra (Bazas); the city of the Elloronenses (Oloron); the city of the Ausci (Auch). To the description of Novempopulana M. Guérard appends variant readings taken from twenty-five manuscript codices of the Paris library; and among them there are twenty-one which set down the city of the Ausci as the metropolis, and as many which place the city of the Elusates in the last position; indeed one, of the fourteenth century to be sure, has: The city of the Elosates, once a metropolis, now a township Ibid., p. 30. Yet the bishopric of Eauze does not seem to have ceased before the ninth century, in which the city was destroyed by the Normans, although the name of any bishop after the seventh century, advanced beyond its middle, has not hitherto been found; the last whose name is known is Paternus, who in the year 663 subscribed a privilege of the monastery of Corbie Mabillon, Annals, vol. I, p. 433. After Paternus, says Gallia Christiana Vol. I, col. 970, very many prelates of the Church of Eauze are lacking; for in this place the metropolitan see still persisted until the ninth century, in which the city was destroyed by the Normans, and the see of Auch was set above the others of Novempopulana with the honour of metropolis. But while the episcopal see remained at Eauze, there seems no canonical reason why it should be deprived of its metropolitan right; and in the eighth century the ecclesiastical law was in force that, as Pope Adrian I says Migne, Patrology, vol. XCVI, col. 1215, just as the individual metropolitan cities were founded by ancient privileges, so they should remain… Nor ought a church to sustain any damage to its rank from this, if for sixty or eighty years and more, by the neglect of certain prelates and the devastation of the barbarians, it has lost and let go its ancient dignity, one strengthened by the confirmation of the Roman pontiffs, when for almost innumerable years, by the disposition of the Spirit of God, it has enjoyed it. This letter, sent to Bertherius of Vienne, was directed, as is said in the text, to all the bishops. From these things it comes out as quite probable that the bishop of Auch attained the metropolitan dignity only when the see of Eauze was taken away in the ninth century, and therefore that our Saint Leothadius must be struck out of the roll of metropolitans or archbishops.

[8] The time of the episcopate is defined after a fashion; And these are about the things that may be disputed concerning the holy bishop of Auch. Le Cointe adds at the year 674, § CXI: We consider that Perpetuus was made bishop in this year and, as Du Chesne affirms, spent seventeen years in the prelacy, that is, reached the year 691, in which St. Leothadius succeeded him. Du Chesne adds that St. Leothadius sat for seven and twenty years. Nothing more suitable to our chronology can be said, because St. Leothadius, as the Sainte-Marthes prove from ancient parchments of the Church of Auch Old Gallia Christiana, vol. I, p. 98, departed this life on the tenth before the Kalends of November, in the twelfth * year of Christ above the seven hundredth. Thus far Le Cointe, whom we follow as best we can because we have nothing else; yet this is to be regretted, that nobody exhibits the instruments by which the assertions might be made firm. Du Saussay in the supplement to the Gallican Martyrology has this on St. Leothadius P. 1185: In Burgundy, of Saint Leothadius, prelate of Auch, already a metropolitan see. This man, called from the abbacy of Moissac, at the confluence of the rivers Tarn and Sarre in the territory of Cahors, to this cathedra on account of the sparkling lights of a mind full of God, both finished the ascetery he had begun and, following the examples of the good shepherd, governed his diocese, and indeed the whole of Novempopulana, according to the prescription of the divine will. And when he had ruled the sheep entrusted to him most holily for 37 years (others 27), in Burgundy, where he had set out for the benefit of the Church, he reached the goal of his labours and rested in a peaceful death in Christ, who is the true life. His body, carried back to his own see and laid in the principal church of the most holy Virgin Mother of God, shone forth with very many signs of glory; from which it came about that he has since then been invoked by the prayers of the faithful people as an acceptable advocate with God; and these, the Lord granting it, he not rarely assists. The Blessed Confessor and Pontiff also very often succours his clients against all straits of mind and body; but above all he gives his patronage against sudden death.

[9] and is probably asserted to have died in Burgundy. That St. Leothadius died on a Burgundian journey is the tradition, and it is firm on every side, if it is established that his body rested preserved there for a long time. Now it is read in a charter of Cluny Baluze, Histoire de la maison d'Auvergne, vol. II, p. 1 that Stephen with his wife Ermengarde gave to the abbot of Cluny, Eymardus or Aymardus, a demesne court which is called Oydellis, with the chapel which is built in honour of the Blessed Mother of God Mary, where Blessed Leotadus rests in the body; and the said court is situated in the county of Auvergne in the bishopric of Autun. What this place Oyellis may be, which Baluze renders in French as Oudelle Ibid., vol. I, p. 29, escapes me, and it neither occurs in the polyptych whether of Autun or of Cluny, nor could it be found in present-day geographical lexicons. But whatever be the case with the place, it must be examined whether in the cited charter it is St. Leothadius of Auch who is treated, or on the contrary another of the same name. And indeed nobody of this name other than the Saint who was bishop of Auch is recorded in the sacred calendars, so far as I have searched them, who enjoys ecclesiastical cult; next, since, on the testimony of Ménard Martyrology of the Order of St. Benedict, p. 724, an old Calendar of Cluny refers the name of St. Leothadius to the 23rd day of October, it is altogether likely that the body at Oyellis in the year 952, as the above-cited charter has it, is that of St. Leothadius, bishop of Auch. The question would certainly be settled if there were evidence of the translation; but this too antiquity has begrudged us. Gallia Christiana leaves the question undecided Vol. I, p. 976; but M. Brugelles in his Chronicles of Auch, cited by the Rev. Monlezun Lives of the Saints, Bishops of Auch, p. 19, holds the common opinion to be beyond doubt. And these are the things we can set forth, after a fashion, about the deeds of St. Leothadius.

[10] the body brought from Burgundy rests at Auch, Although the people of Auch knew for certain that the body of St. Leothadius rested in the metropolitan church, yet by lapse of time the memory of the definite place in which it was stored had been wiped out. But Léonard de Trapes, who ruled the Church of Auch from the year 1599 to 1629, in the year 1610 found the remains of St. Leothadius in the metropolitan cathedral, which he was restoring at great expense. The whole matter is narrated exactly by Antoine Montgaillard, a priest of our Society, in the Vasconic History, hitherto, as Southwell says in the Library of Writers, unpublished, which we accordingly bring forward from the little work of the Rev. Monlezun, who marks it Vol. I, fol. 275 Ibid., p. 90. The precious body of this Blessed Leothadius, with two others of Saints Taurinus and Austindus, was found by the Most Rev. Lord Léonard de Trapes, archbishop of Auch, about the beginning of the year MDCX, during a visitation of the cathedral basilica, in the manner that follows. It was held by constant report and believed by certain tradition that in three stone sarcophagi which are seen in the crypts of the cathedral church of Auch, at three different altars, the three bodies of Blessed Taurinus, Leothadius and Austindus had been deposited; but whether by the neglect or by the length of the times, it had been wiped from memory which was contained in which tomb. This at last was reported, that in that sepulchre which is found in the second chapel as one enters from the archbishop's palace the body of Blessed Taurinus was contained. The rest was uncertain; so sagacity was needed, since neither diptychs, nor books, nor stones spoke.

[11] When those stone sarcophagi had been opened, it was diligently inquired whether all the bones of a body were found in each tomb; and indeed, with physicians and surgeons standing by and examining, which Léonard de Trapes, archbishop of Auch, two were found quite complete in two sepulchres. In the third they declared that the lower part of one arm, which adjoins the hand, was missing. Here, then, the venerable silver reliquaries of the canons had to be fetched and opened; and, on the weighty assertion of those men, attested by their records, the arm of Blessed Leothadius was brought out. Nor did the word lack credit. For when that bone had been taken from the silver reliquary and set together with the other bones of the arm lying in the stone tomb, it clung so aptly at the joints and junctures that it left no doubt to anyone standing by that this bone belonged to this body. And lest perhaps the least cause of doubt should remain to anyone, the natural proportions of arm with arm, and again of arm with the other bones, were compared and measured together, and the constant symmetry of due length, of the same colour and size, unequal in no part, made the matter clearer than the light of noon. Wherefore from this it was at once established in the first place that the body of St. Leothadius in the nearest

chapel to the archbishop's palace had been found.

[12] canonically visits, Coming then to the other sepulchres, it had again to be questioned, that the truth might grow clear, which of them was the body of Blessed Taurinus, which that of Blessed Austindus? But here too the place for conjecture was not difficult. For it is certain that Blessed Taurinus closed his life by a most glorious contest of martyrdom, namely with the upper part of his head crushed. In the second tomb, then, the skull was searched for, and found just as report had it: that right-hand part of the skull, namely, broken and utterly cut away from the crown to the ear, as much as the palm of an open hand would cover. By which most certain indication it was known that the relics of Blessed Taurinus lay in the second chapel. It remained that the third should be conceded to St. Austindus, confessor. And this also became manifest afterwards by other arguments. For both the bones themselves set together among one another, and the silken cloths in which these sacred Relics are wrapped, attested this very thing, since those which are seen in the tomb of Blessed Austindus appear more recent, those in that of Blessed Leothadius older, those in that of Blessed Taurinus the oldest, which is very close to historical truth. The sacred bodies being thus found by the most religious prelate, the honour that was due was rendered. And first, in a most solemn procession, with the whole city in supplication and the clergy and people of Auch (accompanying), those most holy heads, once so full of piety, wisdom and divine light, wrapped in most precious cloths, were carried around, now by the most reverend prelate himself, now by the most senior canons of the chapter; and then the stone sarcophagi were closed up as before, there first being left in that place a writing (on) the finding of this festive day, on parchments rolled in the manner of ancient volumes, to be a monument of eternal memory. The heads, however, were honourably put back in the sacristy, until the silver reliquaries which were being commissioned should have been worked up.

[13] concerning which matter he draws up a solemn instrument, In this auspicious finding of the sacred pledges, lest the College of our Society should be cheated of its share of the blessing, the prelate most loving towards us, not unaware with what ardent desires our fathers longed for a small portion of this divine treasure, of his own accord offered us part of a rib from Leothadius, part of a larger bone from Austindus, and from the body of Taurinus a joint of one finger; while for himself he retained the pallia and the wooden pastoral staffs which had been found in the tombs; for no other reason than that, consumed by excessive age, the staffs had been reduced to such lightness that you would have thought them elder-pith, and they were so fragile that at the slightest touch they vanished away like ash. Some errors, thrust in by the fault of the typesetters, we have corrected, and words which seemed to be lacking we have supplied, enclosed in parentheses. A solemn instrument of the whole affair was drawn up by the praised Archbishop Léonard de Trapes, of the following tenor Monlezun, p. 95: Léonard, by divine mercy and the grace of the holy apostolic see archbishop of Auch, to all who shall inspect the present letters, greeting in the Lord. We make known that in the year of the Lord one thousand six hundred and ten, on the fourteenth day of the month of January, proceeding with and continuing the visitation begun by us in our metropolitan church, and having visited all the altars and the other things to be visited in our said upper church, we went down into the lower subterranean chapels, in (the first) of which, which is on the side of our archiepiscopal house, we found a stone altar, above which there was also found a stone sepulchre, in which all asserted that there lay the body of Saint (Leothadius), archbishop, our predecessor; and that we might be more certain of this matter, we ordered the same sepulchre to be opened by Guillaume Bauduer, stonemason or mason, in the presence of the venerable men, Masters François Vedelly, abbot of Faget, syndic of the chapter, Bernard Dufaur, Gérald Daignan, Ramond du Mas, Jean Destarac, Durand du Mont, Jean Jacques Acosta, Sanche Chappuys and Pierre Rouède, canons of our Church, Manaud Falga, prebendary, Masters Guillaume Laburguière, Jean Borie and Dominique Pujol, consuls. In which sepulchre we found the body of Saint Leothadius, (diminished in the lower part of the arm), and the head whole, which we drew out, so that, enclosed in silver caskets, it may be preserved in our said metropolitan church for the devotion of the whole people, and be and be held in greater honour of the said St. Leothadius. This done, we had the said sepulchre closed again (and) sealed up by the same stonemason or mason. In faith of which things we have ordered these present letters, signed by our own hand and secured with our seal, to be dispatched by our secretary. Given at Auch, in our archiepiscopal house, on the fifteenth day of the month of January, in the year of the Lord one thousand six hundred and ten. Léonard, etc. There follow the subscriptions of the others present.

[14] as also concerning the remains of SS. Taurinus and Austindus: Similar letters were dispatched for the other Saints, Taurinus and Austindus, so that only the name of the Saint and the number of the Chapel in which he lay were changed. By what slip of the pen I do not know, the Rev. Monlezun wrote at the head that it treats of the body of St. Leothadius, while then in the body of the instrument itself it treats of Austindus; for which reason we too have had to adapt certain words of the text, written in parentheses, to the remains of St. Leothadius. For the rest, we have brought these things about the three holy pontiffs all the more gladly in that they are less to be found in the Acts of SS. Taurinus and Austindus, elucidated by our predecessors, who do not touch by one word on the writings of Antoine Montgaillard, which we too would not know had we not found certain fragments in the book of the Rev. Monlezun. Our book-stock on Gascon matters is scanty, and we do not even happen to have a Breviary, whether ancient or recent. And these few little things which we have laboriously scraped together about St. Leothadius we owe especially to the book of the Rev. Monlezun on the holy Pontiffs of Auch, sent to us after we had sought some information about the Saint from the Rev. secretary of the archbishopric. Let those, then, have due thanks who have furthered our small work in liberal fashion; and let those who know the affairs of Auch more deeply deign to grant easy pardon to a writer who stumbles, falls short and errs.

[15] parts of the holy bodies enclosed in precious cases: Although, further, Archbishop Léonard had it in mind to enclose the several heads of his holy predecessors in several silver busts, he carried this out, perhaps being occupied with other things, for St. Taurinus alone Ibid., p. 73 and following. A second bust for St. Austindus was given as a gift by Étienne d'Aignan du Sendat Ibid., p. 74; but the head of St. Leothadius remained enclosed, enclosed in a gilded wooden bust Ibid., loc. cit.. The visitation of the sacred remains celebrated by Archbishop Léonard was preceded by other translations. We certainly do not know, as we said above, either when or how the body of St. Leothadius was brought from Burgundy into Gascony; nor, as it seems, does there survive any record of the translation which took place either at the end of the fifteenth century or the beginning of the sixteenth. If indeed it is established that in the year 1484, on the 12th day of February, the principal stone was laid of the new metropolitan church Ibid., p. 63, which is deservedly reckoned among the most splendid cathedral churches of France, at that time probably the sacred remains were moved, and to each a chapel and altar of its own was assigned; yet, so far as I know, no instrument of such a translation has remained extant. Those altars and sepulchres, nevertheless, both of cut stone, had been so constructed that the front part of the sepulchre was supported on the edge of the altar, the rear part on the very wall of the chapel; by which structure there was a free way round about the altar, and people, according to the custom of those times Ibid., p. 64, still in force in certain sanctuaries, could pass beneath the several sepulchres; indeed, the sepulchres too were open on both sides, at head and feet, so that they could be looked into on the inside, and handkerchiefs and other things sanctified by touch.

[16] at last in the year 1857 And in this state the Relics of the holy pontiffs of Auch continued until the most sad year 1793, in which, the Catholic religion having been abolished, the sacred buildings were despoiled, plundered and demolished. But although the metropolitan temple fared more fortunately than many other churches, inasmuch as it preserved its principal ornaments, the pronaos, the portico, the marble altars, the most artful seats of the choir, the pictured windows, as it were entire Ibid., p. 79, yet the church was despoiled of its sacred furnishings, and so also of the reliquary cases, made for the most part of precious metal. Thus with the silver bust the head of St. Taurinus perished Monlezun, p. 73; but the Relics of SS. Leothadius and Austindus remained intact, although the reliquaries perished by fire Ibid., p. 74. After such great vicissitudes of affairs it seemed opportune to visit the remains preserved thus far: Archbishop Nicolas Augustin de la Croix d'Azolette, whom the Rev. Monlezun calls a Saint of earlier days Ibid., loc. cit., twice visited the metropolitan church, but left the subterranean church closed. And so the present archbishop, the Most Rev. Antoine de Salinis, ordered the crypts of the metropolitan church to be opened on the 21st day of January 1857, and wished to investigate, before witnesses named in the authentic instrument, whether in the turbulent times of the close of the eighteenth century the sacred remains had suffered any damage. The visitation was begun from the chapel of St. Leothadius, and when the sepulchre was opened, there appeared a shroud of white colour, extended over nearly the whole sepulchre, worn away in no part, made of the finest Flanders cloth; in the middle was placed a phial containing a rolled parchment. Beneath that shroud there was also another, likewise of linen and sketched over with various figures, and around the head a silken cloth of rose colour, quite large, and finally the broken and torn remains of pontifical vestments.

[17] a new visitation was undertaken, of which the instrument is shown. At last, all obstructions having been laid aside, there appeared the bones of the sacred body, arranged in their natural order Ibid., p. 75 and following. And on the 3rd day of the following February a survey of the Saint's bones was made, and there were found Ibid., p. 97 the lower jaw with 13 teeth (there were missing, namely, one molar on the left and two incisors); 24 ribs and the sternum; the hyoid bone; the upper part of the larynx; two clavicles; two shoulder-blades; 24 vertebrae; the right humerus, ulna and radius; the left humerus; the two iliac bones and the sacrum; the two femurs with the two kneecaps; the right tibia and fibula; the left tibia and fibula; the two heel-bones and several bones of the tarsus, metatarsus and toes; a small number of the carpus, metacarpus and fingers; lastly ashes, enclosed on the same day in three vessels. On the following day, the 4th of February, a similar survey of the bones of SS. Taurinus and Austindus was made Ibid., p. 98 and following. The most reverend lord the present archbishop of Auch confirmed the solemn visitation of the sacred remains by the following instrument Ibid., p. 101: Antoine de Salinis, by the grace of God and of the apostolic see archbishop of Auch, to all who shall inspect the present letters, greeting in the Lord. We make known that in the year of the Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, on the twenty-first day of the month of January, we went down into the lower chapels of our metropolitan church, in the first of which, which is on the north side, we found a stone altar, above which we also found a stone sepulchre

was found, in which all knew that the body of Saint Leothadius, our predecessor, lay. That we might be more certain of this matter, in the presence of the venerable men, Masters Pierre de Belloc, Casimir de Ladoue, Germain Darre, our vicars general, Antoine Viguier, Jean Baptiste Mondin, Jean Baptiste Prieur, Jean Joseph Mendousse, Pierre Barciet, archpriest, Jean Justin Monlezun, Louis Antoine Chevallier, Jean Caussade, Bernard Taran, Marie Dominique Joseph Pellefigue, canons, Jean Baptiste Densoy, parish priest of St. Orens, Charles Monbet, professor of the major seminary, honorary canons, and also Barthélemy Campardon and Austinde Fourcade, administrators of the fabric of the church, and many others, we ordered it to be opened by Palanque and Autefage, stonemasons or masons. In which sepulchre we found a glass vessel, well closed and secured with a seal, containing the authentic letters of the visitation made by the venerable Léonard de Trapes, our predecessor, in the year one thousand six hundred and ten, on the fourteenth day of January, which we had read. We found moreover the bones of Saint Leothadius whole, apart from the head and the left arm, which are preserved in the sacristy. That the devotion of the faithful might be satisfied, we drew out two ribs. This done, we had the said sepulchre closed again (shut) and sealed (made fast) by the same stonemasons. In faith of which things we have ordered these present letters, signed by our own hand and secured with our seal, to be dispatched by our secretary. Given at Auch in our archiepiscopal house in the month and year stated above. It is plain enough that this instrument was drawn up in the course of the month of February, since, as we have shown above, the survey of the bones was first made on the 3rd and 4th of February. Similar letters too were dispatched concerning the sacred bodies of Taurinus and Austindus.

[18] [A hymn in honour of St. Leothadius and the present state of the metropolis of Auch.] Being now about to close what we have collected to be said about St. Leothadius, we add two things. First, we report some verses, quite ancient, composed in honour of the Saint, omitted by Philippe Labbe in the Library of Manuscripts, who yet records similar poems on SS. Taurinus and Orientius Vol. II, p. 598. These then are the verses:

Let the Church of Auch rejoice, Keeping the solemn feast of wonderful Leothadius; Who was archprelate there For twenty-seven years, After thirty-seven others In number, archbishops. Let the happy city of Auch exult above all, Glorious with the sacred body of so great a pontiff: That by his constant intercessions It may be freed from all adversities, And may deserve to obtain with the Most High The remission of all sins, And happily to arrive At the brightness of perpetual light. Amen.

The second I add. Namely, that probably in the ninth century the metropolitan see was transferred from Eauze to Auch; and there it remained until the beginning of this present century, with the suffragan churches of Dax, Lectoure, Comminges or St-Bertrand, Couserans, Aire, Bazas, Tarbes, Oloron, Lescar and Bayonne. But then, all the cathedral and metropolitan Churches of the whole of France having been abolished, a new circumscription of bishoprics was made by the authority of Pope Pius VII by virtue of the Concordat of the year 1801, which fell out badly for the Church of Auch: for Auch, head of the division of Gers (Département du Gers), with its whole territory, was added to the recently erected diocese of Aginnum (Agen); until, the face of things having changed, in the year 1823, a new pact having been entered into with Pope Pius, the metropolitan see of Auch, to which the prefecture of Gers was attributed, was restored anew, having the suffragan Churches of Aire, Tarbes and Bayonne.

* seventeenth?